Cardiac Dimensions Nabs $5.8M for Heart Failure Device

[Updated: 10:20 am 9/13/12] Cardiac Dimensions has pulled in another round of financing as it looks to sell its first marketable product in Europe.

The Kirkland, WA-based company has raised $5.8 million in a combination of equity, debt, and warrants to buy more shares from a group of 17 investors, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The filing doesn’t say who invested in this round, but Gerry Brunk of Lumira Capital, Nathan Every of Frazier Healthcare Ventures, Kurt Wheeler of Clarus Ventures (formerly of MPM Capital), Doug Fisher of InterWest Partners, and Rami Elghandour of Johnson & Johnson Development Corporation are all listed on the board of directors. The company has raised more than $60 million since its founding in 2001.

Cardiac Dimensions tends to keep a pretty low profile, but it last made significant news a year ago when its first product was cleared for sale by the European Commission. The device, called the Carillon Mitral Contour System, is designed to treat a form of congestive heart failure known as mitral valve regurgitation, in which the heart is no longer able to vigorously pump blood. It happens when the mitral valve loosens up, meaning that when the heart pumps blood out, some of it backflows into the heart. Cardiac Dimensions aims to prevent the backflow by using a catheter to insert a super-flexible alloy wire around the valve to tighten it. An estimated 3.2 million people in the U.S. have loose mitral valves contributing to their heart failure.

In an interview last year, CEO Rick Stewart said the company plans to start marketing the product with its own sales force in 2012, with an initial plan to target Germany, France, the Netherlands and Belgium. The company said last October that it hired a vice president of sales and marketing.

[Update] Cardiac Dimensions has begun marketing efforts in Europe, and has secured reimbursement for its device in Germany, Stewart says via email. More detail is expected in an announcement next week, he says.